Al Pike: Graham a great find for UNH

It didn’t take long for Corey Graham’s play-making ability to emerge at the college level.

His first impression on the University of New Hampshire football team came in fall camp.

“He made a play at free safety on a tackle for loss on a speed option,” said Wildcat assistant coach and Exeter native Brian Barbato, a former offensive lineman at UNH. “The offensive coordinator paused the tape and said that’s a play that shouldn’t be made. He said ‘this kid is going to be something special.’ That jumped out at me.”

The offensive coordinator was Chip Kelly, the new head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles and a pretty good judge of talent on both sides of the ball as evidenced by his success at UNH and Oregon.

At the time, Graham was a true freshman who was expected to redshirt the season.

“You make a tackle for a 5-yard gain as a safety you’re doing a good job,” Barbato said. “He made the tackle for a loss. He’s never been one to back down and say he couldn’t do something. He was always pushing it. He didn’t know he wasn’t supposed to be able to do that.”

Dover’s Nick Couturier, an all-conference center at UNH, came in with Graham, who combined intelligence with athleticism.

“You wouldn’t think an offensive lineman and cornerback would interact a lot,” Couturier said, “but when we did screens I always had to pull out and you’d look downfield to see who you had to block. With Corey, you couldn’t go at him the same way every time. He was the kind of kid you couldn’t be a robot to block. You had to be athlete to try and block him.”

Graham had a productive career at UNH and will take the field today in New Orleans as a starting cornerback for the Baltimore Ravens, who meet the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII.

He didn’t get there by accident.

“He was always an inquisitive guy,” Barbato said. “Coming from a small high school he didn’t have a wealth of football knowledge so he was always milking everything he could. He was like a sponge and that’s why he consistently kept getting better and better and better.”

Graham came from a small high school near Buffalo, N.Y. that no longer exists. He had more teammates at UNH that he had classmates in high school.

“When we saw him on tape it looked like he was playing in somebody’s back yard,” said UNH head coach Sean McDonnell. “It was like Gulliver’s Travels. He was a man among boys.”

He grew up quickly at UNH. With one of the starting corners struggling on and off the field, the Wildcats needed help at the position.

McDonnell asked Graham, a true freshman, if he wanted to shed the redshirt tag even though it meant using up a full year of eligibility for the sake of half a season.

“He said ‘Hell yeah, let’s go. I want to play,’” McDonnell said. “He wanted to play since Day 1 when he walked into camp.”

“He was different,” Couturier said. “The way some people carry themselves, you hope when they get out on the practice field it translates. Everything about him was contagious.”

Graham turned out to be one of those players who probably could have played offense and defense in college.

He did emerge as one of the top kick returners in the league and holds the UNH record for returns and return yards in a season.

He also set a record for return yards in a game at Delaware when the opposing quarterback was Joe Flacco, who is now calling signals for the Ravens.

“If he wasn’t a great defensive back he would have been a great receiver,” McDonnell said. “He was probably the best athlete on the field when he was here.”

And that includes quarterback Ricky Santos and receiver David Ball. All three were instrumental in the program’s resurgence, although Santos and Ball got most of the credit.

“We laugh about it,” McDonnell said. “(Graham) was always talking about the Ricky and David show. He goes, ‘I could have done that.’ We had a lot of pieces, but everybody in this program knew there were three guys that made this whole thing go.”

The thing that separated Graham from Santos and Ball was his versatility. He could play special teams, and that made him a better pro prospect.

In fact, he played them so well when he got to the NFL that he became stereotyped. He was so valuable on special teams, he rarely got a chance to start. Until now.

He started only 10 games in five years with the Bears, who drafted him in the fifth round in 2007.

“When he got to start with the Bears he did very well,” Barbato said. “Whether they had him pegged in a certain role on the team, maybe. His role has changed a little bit with the Ravens. Sometimes you need a fresh start.

He’s started 11 games this season for the Ravens, who signed him as an unrestricted free agent and discovered a diamond in the rough when injuries forced their hand.

Even when one of the injured players returned, Graham remained in the lineup where his ability to make big plays at big times was on full display against the Broncos in the divisional playoffs.

He intercepted Peyton Manning twice, returning one for a touchdown and setting up the game-winning field goal in overtime with the other. Without Graham’s contribution, the Ravens might be watching the Super Bowl at home.

He finished 12 career interceptions at UNH and 302 tackles.

“He did a lot of different things when he was here,” McDonnell said, “and he did a lot of different things well.”

“He had a great personality,” Couturier said. “He was the hardest worker we had on the team. He put his time in. He loved to play football.”

Graham missed half his senior year with a broken ankle that could have hurt his draft status.

Despite being limited physically, the Wildcat tri-captain was invited to the NFL Combine in Indianapolis and had an impressive Pro Day at UNH that included a one-handed interception.

“Just to see the determination in his eyes getting ready for the combine and getting ready for his pro day here, it was unbelievable to watch him grow like that,” McDonnell said.

“Not a lot of people can break their leg five games into their senior season and get drafted out of a 1-AA school,” Couturier said. “That just shows you what the NFL thought of him. The kid’s a player.”

Graham is also one of the recent success stories coming out of UNH, joining Kelly and former Wildcat running back Chad Kackert, who was named MVP of the Grey Cup while playing for the Toronto Argonauts of the CFL.

“Nothing has really changed as far as the family aspect,” Barbato said. “I guarantee they still care more about winning than they do any personal accolades.”

“You remember what good people they were,” McDonnell said. “They all had a great sense of team.”

Al Pike is a staff sports writer for Foster’s Daily Democrat and Foster’s Sunday Citizen. He can be reached at 742-4455, ext. 5514, or at apike@fosters.com.

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